1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to paper forms used in commerce.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Forms, particularly paper forms, used in commerce may embody patentable features. The present invention is embodied in a single sheet paper form. The holderuser of such form will be able to choose amongst alternative uses of such form, the choice of using the form for one purpose thereafter precluding the choice of using the form for an alternative purpose. Certain Prior art patents show paper forms enabling alternative usage. U.S. Pat. No. 978,407 to H. J. Smith for a "TRANSFER TICKET" shows a street car transfer ticket wherein one of two ends may be removed depending upon the direction in which the passenger is traveling. When the ticket is used for travel an appropriate one end is removed. After the removal of one end the ticket is useful for travel only in the direction indicated by the remaining parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,109,603 to S. Worth for a "SALES STIMULATOR" shows a card with tear-up windows which expose underlying indicia nominally bearing a relationship to goods (such as gum or cigars). The intended use of the cards is in mercantile promotions. One or more of the flaps indicia overlaying are removed in an irreversible operation. The holder of such card is then entitled to certain benefits, such as reception of a mercantile item, which become exposed.
Finally in a class of single-sided paper documents allowing alternative realizations, U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,544 to Fishkin for a "DUAL VALUE DOCUMENT" shows a document upon a sheet of flexible material, such as paper. The document is divided into a middle section plus two connected and detachable end sections. Similarly to the teaching of Smith, one end section must be detached in order to thereafter enable use of the remaining middle and attached end section of the document. Differential to the teaching of Smith, the "Dual Value Document" of Fishkin shows a first area of printing which occupies a first end section and part of the middle section, and a second area of printing which occupies the middle section and the second end section. Detachment of one end renders the printing which was partially upon that end invalid. The benefits described by printing occuring at each end of the ticket may be of a different character, and are not limited to benefits of such similar nature that they may be described by but one block of text (such as exists within the center section of the "Transfer Ticket" of Smith).
All the forms of Smith, Worth and Fishkin may be distinguished from the present invention in that they employ but one side of a paper form, whereas the present invention will be seen to employ two sides. Additionally, there is no suggestion that one of the choices which should, in the alternative, be made available to the holder of the form is to be a negotiable instrument, nominally a check. To envision how difficult, probably impossible, it would be to emplace a negotiable instrument, nominally a check, on a one side of a form while the same side simultaneously presents an alternative choice for the usage of such form, nominally a coupon, it is illustrative to consider the most general case, the "DUAL VALUE DOCUMENT" of Fishkin. Considering the "DUAL VALUE DOCUMENT" of Fishkin and conceptualizing that a negotiable instrument (the check) occupies one end plus some portion or all of the middle section, while the alternative use of the form occupies the second end plus some portion, or all, of the middle section, it immediately becomes apparent that the disparate nature of the two uses of a check and a coupon cannot be reconciled within a middle, overlapping, image area. If the check is printed entirely upon one end of the dual value document, and the coupon entirely upon the other end, then both the check and the coupon are simultaneously severable and usable, and do not present an alternative. Conversely, if the information necessary to validate use of the check is somehow attempted, in the middle section, to be overlapped with the information alternatively necessary to validate use of the coupon, then difficult, probably insurmountable, problems arise. These problems arise because the vastly different prescribed texts (respectively by banks and by merchants) for checks and for coupons preclude that both should share, upon a single side of a single form, a single text, or image, area.
A prior art teaching which shows the use of both sides of a paper form is U.S. Pat. No. 1,186,047 to R. Sigsbee for a "CHECK". Sigsbee describes a two-sided paper form. The form shows upon one side a discount order, which, when presented at the store of the vendor after proper cancellation [hereinafter described], indicates a certain percentage discount value. The percentage discount value bears a percentage ratio to the value of previously purchased goods. Alternatively, the same proper cancellation of the ticket effected at the time of the sale of goods accords another, possibly different, discount percentage ratio which may be applied, as a cash equivalent, to a purchase. Whereas the first discount accorded by the form is normally applied to the purchase of mercantile goods available at participating merchants, the second discount is normally applied to the purchase of tickets (such as car tickets, theater tickets, or train tickets) or accommodations at a central agency. A single punch, or validation, of the card at the time of a single purchase of goods constitutes cancellation and enables the "check" for all alternative purposes.
The "check" form of Sigsbee is distinguishable from the present invention in several aspects. Within Sigsbee, the values upon the form are not fixed at the time of printing, but are only later established by cancellation through punching at the time of purchase. If the form of Sigsbee, which contains a range of fields intended to encompass a like range of dollar purchases, were to be instead restricted to but a single dollar amount (as is the case with the present invention), then the entire employment of such form within a mercantile system would seemingly fail.
Also relative to the present invention, there is no automatic cancelling or destruction of the unused alternative at the time of a selection of a use of the Sigsbee "check" form. The holder/consumer makes a choice with the Sigsbee form whether to get a discount on goods by surrendering the "check", or to get an alternative discount on tickets by also surrendering the "check". Whoever comes to get the "check" as subsequent holder--either the goods retailer or the ticket seller --can still take the same Sigsbee "check", still valid, elsewhere to receive either the goods discount or the ticket discount. There is no disablement of the unused alternative of the "check" form by use of the other alternative.
Finally, and although the "discount order" and "merchant's ticket order" alternatives of the Sigsbee form are remotely analogous to coupons (although providing for a percentage, as opposed to a fixed amount, off from a specified purchase), Sigsbee does not suggest of how a coupon could be combined, in the alternative, upon a paper form with a negotiable instrument. Sigsbee suggests only of what often occurs in daily newspapers, when the clipping of a coupon upon one side of a newsprint sheet may come to sever, and destroy the validity, of another coupon upon the other side of the same sheet.
Additionally in the prior art, combination coupons exhibiting an overlapping central section are often placed in newspapers. Various strategies are employed. The coupon may sometimes be redeemed in one alternative usage for a greater value if a greater quantity of merchandise is purchased. Sometimes, the same quantity of merchandise being indicated in both alternative usages, a greater dollar value is obtained if the coupon is used early, then when, the alternative section being clipped, the coupon with an alternative expiration date is used later. All these considerations involved in combining coupons, whether upon the same or upon opposite sides of a paper piece, are not equivalent to considerations relevant to combining one or more coupons with a negotiable instrument such as a check.